HORNBROOK — As the Klamathon Fire sent a billowing plume of smoke skyward, a handful of Hornbrook residents stood their ground Thursday by choosing not to leave their homes.

The Rev. Myron Miller said Friday he refused to follow evacuation orders in his neighborhood, not because he's stubborn but because he'd survived worse fires before. He placed his trust in a higher power.

“I have faith in ‘Big Daddy,’” he said. “He tells me when to leave.”

About 400 people were told to evacuate in this Siskiyou County community, about 12 miles south of the Oregon border as the blaze had burned about 9,600 acres. The inferno was 5 percent contained Friday evening.

One person was found dead inside a building in the fire area and 40 structures have been destroyed, authorities said.

Investigators were trying to determine the victim's manner of death, Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey said.

The coroner is withholding the name, gender and age of the victim until family is notified, although the victim is said to be a civilian..

Meanwhile on Friday, as smoke still rose in the near distance, Miller drove up to neighbor Erica Wilson to check on her.

Wilson, 28, and her 53-year-old father Carl Wilson were some of the few Hornbrook residents who remained behind on their block of Oregon Road.

Erica Wilson was awake most of Thursday night and into Friday morning, worried about how close the fire was getting.

Lake Forest volunteer firefighters, from left, Dylan Beck and Kyle Potter on Friday, July 6, 2018 prepare to put out hot spots from the Klamathon Fire in a residential neighborhood that burned down off Oregon Street in Hornbrook. On the other side, Kim Latos of the Siskiyou County Humane Society looks for displaced animals. Greg Barnette/Record Searchlight

Lake Forest volunteer firefighters from left, Kyle Potter, Dylan Beck and Jerod Ellis work Friday, July 6, 2018 on putting out hot spots in an area burned down by the Klamathon Fire in Hornbrook. Greg Barnette/Record Searchlight

Doreen Bellach waits Friday, July 6, 2018 at the Klamathon Fire evacuation center in Yreka, unsure whether her house is still standing: "Within 10 minutes, it went from up on the mountain to right at us." Alayna Shulman/Record Searchlight

“It’s kind of hard to sleep when this stuff happens, because you’re kind of nervous about it,” she said.

She said the smoke was so thick and black that it was hard to see. She couldn't turn on the lights in her house because the power had been turned off. Without power, she had no running water.

“If the fire comes near your house, how are you supposed to prevent it from burning down when you have no water?” she said.

Buy Photo

Lake Forest volunteer firefighters from left, Kyle Potter, Dylan Beck and Jerod Ellis work Friday, July 6, 2018 on putting out hot spots in an area burned down by the Klamathon Fire in Hornbrook.(Photo: Greg Barnette/Record Searchlight)

One of her neighbors passed by her Friday holding a can of Bud Light with binoculars around her neck.

“I don’t even drink, but it feels like I need to,” the woman said out loud before looking through the field glasses.

Carl Wilson’s home is in front of Hornbrook Elementary School where he has a number of motorhomes and sheds on his property. He also refused to evacuate.

“This is everything I own man. This is it,” he said, pointing to his blue house.

CLOSE

View of the Klamathon Fire from Hornbrook, a small town about 17 miles north of Yreka.
Amber Sandhu, Record Searchlight

On Friday, Carl Wilson and others watched the fire's plume of grow and turn various colors of black, gray and white. He looked north where a jet was dumping retardant on the flames.

“Yep, I don’t want to leave my house,” he said.

A few of the streets and hillsides in their neighborhood were colored pink from the fire retardant dropped by the air tankers fighting the wind-whipped blaze.

The flames were spreading north and west toward the Oregon border Friday. Sheriff Lopey said fire crews were trying to contain the flames before they reached the state line.

Buy Photo

Erica Wilson watches a plume of smoke from the Klamathon Fire while at her father’s home in Hornbrook.(Photo: Amber Sandhu/Record Searchlight)

"This is a monumental, multi-agency effort especially on the fire side," he said.

At last count, the fire had destroyed 40 buildings. Four homes on Oregon Road were reduced to ash.

At least three burned vehicles and children’s toys sat in front of the yard of what looked like a burned home. The property sat next to the Henley and Hornbrook Cemetery where most of the headstones and flowers remained intact.

The fire, which at point jumped the freeway, caused a shutdown of both directions of Interstate 5 beginning early Thursday evening. The California Highway Patrol began escorting drivers when the freeway reopened at 7:15 a.m. Friday.

Buy Photo

Carl Wilson, 53, refused to evacuate his Hornbrook home. On Friday, he looks at the smoke growing on the other side of Interstate 5.(Photo: Amber Sandhu/Record Searchlight)

Bill Murphy, public information officer with the California Department of Forestry and Fore Protection, said this fire's behavior is similar to that of the Boles Fire, which burned more than 500 acres and destroyed 157 buildings.

He described the fires as "long and narrow" and "wind driven." And despite California's "above average rain" last year in certain areas, Murphy said the rain did help prevent some fuels from dying altogether, however, the "dead component is still very high," which only aids fire such as the one in Hornbrook.

Earlier, Highway 97 had been congested with traffic, including numerous big rigs, as drivers sought another route to head north into Oregon and come south into California.

"We're safe but the danger has not entirely passed," said a spokesperson for the Tashi Choling Buddhist Center for Buddhist Studies that’s north of Hilt on the west side of I-5.

The center has a four-story temple and a large, outdoor Buddha statue at its location in Colestin Valley on Colestin Road, south of Ashland, Oregon.

The Chevron station in Hornbrook served as the staging location for fire officials and law enforcement. Lopey said officers were patrolling to make sure no one was breaking into unoccupied homes where residents had following evacuation orders.

"Obviously we're patrolling the area for security," Lopey said.

The fire was reported at 12:37 p.m. Thursday in the area of Ager Road and Cougar Street southeast of Hornbrook. It was apparently deliberately set and grew out of control, according to the CHP's website. Whether the fire was an act of arson or if anyone had been arrested was undetermined Friday afternoon.

Buy Photo

A helicopter is seen Friday, July 6, 2018 over the Klamathon Fire in the California-Oregon border.(Photo: Greg Barnette)

California Gov. Jerry Brown issued a state of emergency, saying people were in “extreme peril” due to the fire. The declaration frees up state aid to help cover the cost of battling the fire.

Firefighters faced challenging conditions Thursday and Friday. The fire burned in rugged terrain where winds were gusting up to 20 mph to 30 mph.

"There's a lot of firefighters out there trying to do the best they can to contain this fire," Lopey said.